News archive

Hi Gabriella Bernhoff, Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care. On February 3 you will defend your licentiate thesis "On the clinical assessment of persistent fatigue and pain", what is the main focus of the thesis?

Hi Andreas Wallin, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy. On January 27 you will defend your thesis "Balance Control in People with Multiple Sclerosis: Mechanisms, Experiences, Design and Feasibility of an Exercise Trial", what is the main focus of the thesis?

Prostate cancer constitutes an essential public health issue, as it is a major cause of male deaths. Early detection through an organised testing program with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test and systematic biopsy is not in place in most countries due to the risk of over-diagnosis and over-treatment of low-risk cancers. Now there are two proposed approaches to tackle this problem; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the serum-based reflex test “Stockholm3”.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer type in women globally, but there is a continuous decline in mortality rates. A partial explanation for this may be that effective treatments are being developed for subgroups of breast cancer patients. It is still challenging to optimise treatment plans for every individual.

The world's biggest community for tropical medicine and global health, the American Society for Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH), had its annual meeting between the 30th of October and November 3rd in Seattle, USA. Global Child Health and SDG research team members Mattias Schedwin and Kevin Baker that participated and were selected to present their research, share their experiences and thoughts from the conference.

Hi there, Jie Guo, PhD student at the Division of Aging Research Center (ARC), Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Institutet! You will defend your thesis entitled "Unraveling the relationship between body mass index and cardiometabolic disease, dementia, and survival in old age" on 10 November 2022. What is the main focus?

Hi Martina Bendt, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy. On November 18 you will defend your thesis "Adults living with spina bifida – From health and living conditions to motor-cognitive performance", what's the main focus of the thesis?

Hepatitis A is an acute liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV) and transmitted via the faecal-oral route through person-to-person transmission, contaminated food or water. While hepatitis A infection is mostly asymptomatic in children, the frequency and severity of symptoms increases with age, with the elderly and patients with other liver disease at risk of hospitalisation, acute liver failure and death.

Hi Linda Eriksson, PhD student at the Division of Nursing, NVS. On June 3 you will defend your thesis "Let's work it out : aspects of the occupational situation of survivors of allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation", what's the main focus of the thesis?

Hi there, Mahwish Naseer, PhD student at the Division of Aging Research Center (ARC), Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Institutet! You will defend your thesis entitled "Why do older adults seek emergency care? The impact of contextual factors, care, health, and social relations" on 14 October 2022. What is the main focus?

Hi there, Marguerita Saadeh, PhD student at the Division of Aging Research Center (ARC), Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Institutet! You will defend your thesis entitled "Enjoying life and living healthier: impact of behavioral and psychosocial factors on physical function in old age" on 22 September 2022. Tell us, what is the main focus of your thesis?

Hi Therese Johansson, PhD-student at the Division of Nursing. On September 9 you will defend your thesis ”A 'new public health' perspective on building competence for end-of-life care and communication : how death literacy can be developed and measured”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Esophageal cancer is the seventh most common cancer world-wide and a lethal malignancy causing a considerably high number of deaths. There is currently no promising method for prevention, early detection, or screening of esophageal cancer so most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, which is associated with a poor prognosis.

In a new thesis from the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Chen Wang used nationwide Swedish register data to assess the long-term health of children conceived with assisted reproductive techniques (ART) and attempted to develop prediction models of pregnancy complications among women undergoing ART.

Annachiara Malin Igra researches the health effects of early-life metal exposure in children in Bangladesh. Her research provides important evidence that growth, bone health and pubertal development of children can be negatively affected by cadmium from food at exposure levels relevant for millions of children around the world. Now she wants to see a new risk assessment for metal exposure where child health is included.

In precision medicine, predicting the risk of an event during a specific period may help, for example, to identify patients that need early preventive treatment. Modern machine learning (ML) techniques are therefore ideal for building these predictions.

In March 2022, André Thunberg had his ISP seminar at the Department of Global Public Health. His research focuses on the prevalence and management of severe paediatric illness in Malawi. Besides his doctoral studies, André also works at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital as a resident doctor.

End-stage liver disease (ESLD), including advanced liver cirrhosis and primary liver cancer, is the final stage of long-standing injury to the liver due to risk factors such as chronic viral hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease. There is a high disease burden and mortality globally, especially in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries such as Ghana, where the primary cause of HCC and cirrhosis is infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Friday May 20, doctoral student Daniel Helldén had his halftime seminar at the Department of Global Public Health. Using a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Synergies Approach and interviews with stakeholders, Daniel aims to investigate the views and perceptions on the linkages between SDGs, different sectors and child health in Cambodia. Through machine learning, he also investigates non-health risk factors of morbidity from infectious diseases.

Microscopic colitis is the most recently recognized inflammatory condition of the large intestine in which abnormal reactions of the immune system cause inflammation of the inner lining of the colon. At present, more than 10,000 people in Sweden are estimated to be living with the disease. Previously, insufficient awareness and knowledge of microscopic colitis have led to underdiagnosis of the disorder, leaving patients untreated.

Hi Pernilla Sönnerfors, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS. On June 17 you will defend your thesis ”eHealth support for physical activity and exercise training in people with COPD”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Hi Richeng Jiang, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics, NVS. On May 30 you will defend your thesis ”Interplay between autophagy and amyloid beta metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Hi Andrea Porserud, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS. On June 3 you will defend your thesis ”Taking physical rehabilitation after abdominal cancer surgery further – by enhanced recovery and physical activity”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Hi Minh Tuan Hoang, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS. On May 25 you will defend your thesis ”Health Inequalities in care for persons with dementia”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

In a new thesis, Rickard Strandberg, PhD student at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, lays the foundations for a new natural history model for breast cancer. By taking advantage of available detailed screening cohorts, Rickard’s work includes three diverse applications of this model.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive and complex disorder that affects multiple parts of the brain but also other organ systems. Symptoms start gradually, sometimes with a barely noticeable tremor in just one hand. Tremor is common, and the disorder also commonly causes stiffness and slowing of movements. More than 10 million people worldwide are living with PD and the incidence increases dramatically with age.

Hi Irene Brusini, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS. On March 25 you will defend your thesis ”Methods for the analysis and characterization of brain morphology from MRI images”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

The Department of Global Public Health (GPH) has got two new doctoral student representatives; Soha el Halabi and Katrine de Angeles. They represent the students in meetings and committees at the department and work to help and support new and existing doctoral students.

On the 3rd of March, doctoral student Vanda had her half-time seminar online via Zoom and in Widerströmska huset. Vanda is a Mozambican healthcare practitioner specialising as a pediatric surgeon in Spain and is now using her experiences from clinical work into research in her thesis titled:
‘Acute pediatric injury in a low-resource African setting during the COVID-19 pandemic: Insight on injury epidemiology and care from the largest hospitals of Mozambique’

Depression is a common and serious mental health condition. It causes a wide variety of symptoms, such as feeling hopeless and sad, and losing interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities. To be diagnosed with depression, symptoms must last for at least two consecutive weeks. At its worst, this mental condition can lead to suicide. It is a worldwide psychiatric illness with a wide range of ages of onset, and it occurs about twice as often in women than men.

It is estimated that more than 10% of the world’s population live with a psychiatric disorder, with significant impacts on health as well as major social, human rights and economic consequences in all countries of the world.

Hi Malin Freidle, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS. On February 11 you will defend your thesis ”Motor and cognitive abilities in Parkinson’s disease with a brain activity perspective: performance at baseline and the effects of a balance training program”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with its two main disease entities Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic and relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The highest prevalence of IBD is found in the Western world, and the lowest in developing countries.

Hi Emilia Schwertner, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS. On January 21 you will defend your thesis ”Factors associated with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Mood and anxiety disorders are some of the biggest contributors to morbidity worldwide, and may be lethal. Appropriate treatment is therefore paramount and antidepressants is the first choice of pharmacological treatment for these disorders, with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as the most common type in the Western world.

Hi Linn Öijerstedt, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics, NVS. On January 20 you will defend your thesis ”Biomarkers in frontotemporal dementia : findings from the GENFI study”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Schizophrenia and eating disorders (EDs) are complex traits with considerable somatic and psychiatric morbidity, affecting 0.4-1% and 9% of the population, respectively. Risk for both is predominantly from genetic sources – 64-81% for schizophrenia and 41-83% for EDs. Despite distinct diagnostic criteria and few common symptoms, significant genetic correlations between schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa (AN) have been identified in several recent genomic studies.

Hi, Riccardo Lo Martire, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS. On January 14 you will defend your thesis ”Sickness absence among patients with chronic pain in Swedish specialist healthcare”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Hi Anja Gebhardt, PhD student at the Division of Nursing. On December 15 you will defend your thesis ”Beyond exhaustion and pain: the intertwinement of health and suffering among women and mothers”. What is the main focus of the thesis?

Kidney function plays an important role in drug safety and effectiveness. As many medications are excreted by the kidneys, patients with reduced kidney function are at a higher risk of toxic drug levels. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been recognized as a leading public health problem worldwide with a global estimated prevalence over 9%.

Pancreatic cancer forms in the cells of the pancreas, an organ in the abdomen that releases enzymes that aid digestion and produces hormones that help manage our blood sugar levels. Pancreatic cancer is a rare disease with poor survival – it causes some 466 000 deaths internationally per year. The number of cases is increasing and the prognosis is that this disease will become the 8th most common cause of cancer deaths by 2040.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, NPC, is a rare tumor of the head and neck, which originates in the nasopharynx at the very back of the nose. NPC has a particularly high incidence in southern China, Southeast Asia, and North and East Africa and is rare in the rest of the world. Little is known about its etiology but it is believed that genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) are involved.

There is a global trend of population aging and Xia Li has studied the phenomena from a molecular epidemiological point of view, with a focus on biological aging. As the number of elderly increases worldwide, there is a need for better data on assessment and prediction of aging risks independent of chronological age. This kind of data is needed together with genetic assessments in order to allow the use of precision medicine.

Dr Nicolas Pejovic has been awarded this year’s Rolf Zetterstöm prize for best thesis in pediatrics. The award was presented at Karolinska Institutet during Barnveckan. In his doctoral thesis No cry at birth. Neaonatal resuscitation in low resource setting: role of the laryngeal mask airway, Dr Pejovic investigates how midwives in low-resource settings could safely resuscitate newborns more effectively using a laryngeal mask instead of a conventional facemask.

Hi Karin Björklund, PhD student at the Division on Family Medicine and Primary Care. On October 15 you will defend your thesis ‘Students’ workplace learning in primary health care: learning from patients’, what’s the main focus of the thesis?

Hi there, Ceren Emre, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics! On September 1 you will defend your thesis ”Resolving inflammation - analysis of mechanisms in relation to Alzheimer pathology and aging”. What is the main focus of your thesis?

High-throughput omics technology has revolutionized biological and biomedical research and large volumes of omics data have been produced. For this, computational tools to manage and analyze the omics data have been developed and there are big challenges in how to process and interpret the omics data in the best way. Wenjiang Deng has worked to develop novel statistical methodologies and algorithms for omics data analysis, using both simulated and real cancer data to test the methods.

Andreas Jangmo has looked at Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which is a common childhood-onset developmental disorder in some 5-7% of all children, to find out more about the outcomes later in life. He has focused on school performance and occupational outcomes. He has also studied how school performance is affected by pharmacological treatment, and how educational attainment (e.g., university completion) affects occupational outcomes.

Hi there, Elin Jakobsson, PhD student at the Division of Occupational therapy! On September 1 you will defend your thesis ”Voices in the wake of eHealth: older adults’ and occupational therapists’ perceptions of using information and communication technology”. What is the main focus of your thesis?

Here you will find some pictures from the get-together for doctoral students within health and health care sciences on October 7, 2021 organized by PUF-V and FiH. The purpose of the day was that the doctoral students and the supervisors would meet.